Sculptural Graffiti: Encrusting the Landscape with Clutter, Ephemera and Swag

Join Amy Orr for a hands-on workshop, creating sculptural graffiti with wire and common artifacts. Participants are requested to bring a pocketful of their own clutter to embed in the colorful and engaging street art. Participants will create the work at Tyler School of Art, then wrap and wire it onto a pole. The location, for installation, will be divulged on the night of the workshop.

Participants are asked to bring a pocketful of everyday detritus. Clean off your counter. Empty the kitchen junk drawer. Collect smallish items that are useless, maybe broken, but you canâ€™t seem to throw them away. Plastic, metal and glass. No paper. Old keys, buttons, key rings, single earrings, broken jewelry, large beads, hardware of all sizes, doll and toy parts, etc.

Artist Bio and Statement: Amy Orr has been collecting common materials for decades. Often working in a quilt format, Orr assembles readymade materials into lush patterned surfaces. She is fascinated by the ordinary, drawn to commonplace artifacts for their abundance, color and inherent content. Her excessive embellishment pays homage to the ordinary, using cultural ephemera for story telling and contemplation.

The Sculptural Graffiti project grows out of the collections that fill every inch of Amyâ€™s studio. Orrâ€™s objective is to empty her world of clutter and work outside of her studio. To do so, Orr is creating entangled assemblages, then wrapping them onto street poles that dot the landscape. She uses her artistic license as permission to work on public property. This project is inspired by Sheila Hicksâ€™ â€œSumo Ballsâ€, Judith Scottâ€™s bound sculpture, and the Philadelphia Wireman.

Amy Orr is an, adjunct professor at Moore College of Art and Design and the force behind fiberphiladelphia 2012. She was a tenured professor at Rosemont College, before resigning to pursue independent projects. Orrâ€™s work is exhibited internationally and written about frequently. Exhibitions include those in Sitges, Spain, SOFA, NY and Chicago, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Temple Gallery, Philadelphia, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Morris Museum, Texas Quilt Museum and the Philadelphia Art Alliance. Orr has a BFA in Fine Arts from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Israel, an MA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia and an MFA in Fibers/Crafts from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. http://www.amyorr.net